Lagavulin 25

L25 with Alison's megamalt, Lord of the Isles Ardbeg:


Out of the case:


Up close and personal:


The full collection, by region, a need to expand methinks:


Well, after working up to it for more than a year and more to the point finally getting the cash together, I indeed left a fine whisky shop clutching a bottle of my king of Islay malts, the 2002 release 25 year old Lagavulin.

Now, usually I am not a high-end whisky fan, as I would rather have many of the low price and wonderfully tasting "everyman" single malts than a couple of select "megamalts", but for this bottle I have made an exception. The reasons for this being that this bottle is my gift-to-self to celebrate my coming 30th, a reasonably significant date, and also that I am a huge fan of all things Lagavulin; this bottle joins the 5yr old, the 12yr old, the 16 yr old and two different releases of the Distiller's Edition sherry finish. I plan to open the new acquisition on the day itself and only after building up through each of the other versions first. Mmm.

Some stats then:

One of 9000 released in 2002, #2843 to be exact.
Alcohol at 57.2% (cask strength)
Purchased from The Wright Wine and Whisky Company, Skipton on Saturday, 16th September 2006.
Cost a reasonable £173, a full £123 more expensive than anything else on my shelves.
Equivalent £6.17 per shot.